The invention concerns, first, a disk brake, especially for utility vehicles, having a brake application shaft and having an adjusting device for wear-dependent adjustment, wherein a rotational axis of the brake application shaft is perpendicular to a rotational axis of the adjusting device and a pin serves to couple the brake application shaft to the adjusting device. Disk brakes of the aforementioned kind are known, for example, from EP 0 730 107 B1. Comparable solutions are shown by EP 0 739 459 B1 and EP 1 683 986 B1.
In the solution per EP 0 730 107 B1, the longitudinal axis of the pin lies parallel to the rotational axis of the brake application shaft. The offset of the longitudinal axis of the pin from the rotational axis of the brake application shaft determines the transmission ratio of the coupling of the brake application shaft to the adjusting device. The larger the offset of the longitudinal axis of the pin relative to the rotational axis of the brake application shaft, the larger the magnitude of the adjustment each time the brake application shaft is activated.
The adjusting device is used for automatic adjusting or readjusting of the clearance. It is crucial how many brake activations are needed in order to adjust a given nominal clearance, for example, when the actual clearance is large on account of excessive brake lining and/or brake disk wear. Furthermore, the clearance should be quickly restored, i.e., with the fewest possible brake activations, after servicing of the brakes, such as a change of linings. Any actual clearance differing too much from the nominal clearance is detrimental to the braking torque in the application/power stroke, because the system must overcome an excessive dead stroke. The maximum activation stroke (dead stroke+application/power stroke) is established or limited, for example, by the inner contour of the caliper. The above remarks apply to all three of the above-mentioned brakes of the prior art, i.e., regardless of whether the adjusting device lies coaxial with a pressing spindle or set off to the side of it.
DE 42 04 307 A1 shows the rotary drive for a spindle of a disk brake for vehicles. Two pins are used to couple a brake application shaft to an adjusting device. The two pins are radially projecting. They are arranged with a slight offset angle from each other in a radial plane. Their ends engage with two recesses, set off from each other in the transverse direction, arranged on a drive lever.